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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Gov. John Kitzhaber said Friday he is bringing in outside help to get Oregon's troubled health insurance exchange going.

The governor said former Providence Health System CEO Greg Van Pelt will "lend his expertise and provide an independent, outsider's view of Cover Oregon." Van Pelt will not be paid.

The announcement came on the same day the state Insurance Division said all of Oregon's health insurers will allow extensions of individual plans that had been slated for cancellation because they don't comply with the federal health care law.

The move affects about 145,000 Oregonians. It could take some heat off Oregon officials who won't have to enroll as many people, but it also means less revenue for the exchange, which must be self-sustaining by 2015. Cover Oregon reduced their enrollment estimates for the second time.

Oregon was an early leader in developing an exchange but was embarrassed when the online enrollment system wasn't ready to launch in October. The exchange, known as Cover Oregon, is running far behind other states and has yet to enroll anyone.

The state is using a paper-based backup system instead and plans to hire or reassign nearly 500 workers to process applications by hand.

Kitzhaber also said Dr. Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Health Authority, will oversee the application and enrollment process

The state has also enrolled about 75,000 people in Medicaid via a "fast-track" enrollment process, reducing the ranks of the uninsured by more than 10 percent.

Kitzhaber says the moves will free Cover Oregon Executive Director Rocky King to focus on getting the exchange website working.

King has faced growing pressure from the Legislature and the exchange's governing board to explain what went wrong and how it will be fixed. He submitted a report Friday saying exchange officials are projecting they'll receive 45,000 applications by the Dec. 4 deadline for people to apply for coverage that would begin Jan. 1.

Oregon has received about 30,000 paper applications thus far, the governor said. About 5,000 have been processed and sent back to applicants, who then have the option to pick an insurance plan and send their choice back to the state to enroll.

King's report says all applications will be reviewed for tax-credit eligibility and responses sent by Dec. 8 — just four days after the postmark deadline to submit them. That would give applicants one week to receive their enrollment packet, select a plan and return it to Cover Oregon by a Dec. 15 deadline.

The report says 497 staff members will process applications, up from an earlier estimate of 400, but 205 of them still haven't been hired.

The governor said the problems with the exchange have been "frustrating" and the state will do a post-mortem analysis of what went wrong — but not until later. For now, the state is focused on getting Oregonians enrolled via the manual paper system, he said.

"We have limited time, so we're putting all hands on deck to make sure every person who wants insurance by Jan. 1 will have it," Kitzhaber said.

The governor also said he should have been paying more attention to Cover Oregon's woes.

"In retrospect, I should have been more engaged in the project. I didn't realize the problems were so significant," he said.

Kitzhaber has been a staunch supporter of the exchange, persuading state lawmakers to approve a robust, ambitious platform.

While other states building their own insurance exchanges have compromised on certain features, Oregon has held on to its vision of building a complicated clearinghouse that could screen people for a wide range of public assistance programs, not just health care.

Cover Oregon is supposed to allow people to shop online for health coverage, find out whether they qualify for tax credits under the federal health care law, and enroll in an insurance plan or Medicaid.

But Oregon's system has struggled to accurately determine whether people are eligible for Medicaid or tax credits.

State officials say Cover Oregon's online enrollment should work for individuals by mid-December, but not in time for people to get coverage that begins Jan. 1.

Oregonians who were previously faced with notices of cancellations and choose to renew their current plans will not qualify for tax credits to lower costs through Cover Oregon. But they will avoid a tax penalty in 2014 under the individual mandate if they renew the plan.

Seven of the nine carriers in Oregon will allow customers to renew their plans through the end of next year. They are: Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest, Providence Health Plan, LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon, Health Net Health Plan of Oregon Inc., Time Insurance Co. and John Alden Life Insurance Co.

The two other carriers — Moda Health Plan and PacificSource Health Plans — will allow renewal through March 31.

People who are allowed to extend the coverage must opt-in to keep their current plan.

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Cooper reported from Salem.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Nigel Jaquiss, a reporter at KATU’s news partners at Willamette Week, and KATU’s Hillary Lake join host Steve Dunn to discuss the lawsuits surrounding Oregon’s failed Cover Oregon, those personal emails Kitzhaber’s office asked to be deleted from state servers and the investigations into him and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes.

Democrat Speaker Pro Temp Tobias Read and Republican House Minority Leader Mike McLane join KATU’s Steve Dunn to discuss the impact former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s resignation will have on the work in the Legislature.